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Vue De Monde – Melbourne Restaurant of the Year? – Definitely

Dinner at Vue De Monde beckoned one Friday night (after a 3 month wait =p) and it was well worth the wait. I had already previously dined at the old Vue De Monde which was located at Little Collins Street about two years ago. Back then the food and the experience was amazing, so my expectations were high…

…and they were met!

From the check-in service and being put into the lift by a concierge located at the bottom entrance to the very end. The new location is A M A Z I N G!! It is 55 levels above the streets on Melbourne, located at the Rialto building and the view is anything short of breathtaking. It is definitely worth the trip up the short ear popping ride in the elevator to just even visit the Lui Bar (http://www.vuedemonde.com.au/the-lui-bar) and have a drink. The cocktail book is in a form of a pop-up picture book which makes you want to try them all out and they are accommodating in making mocktails as well which are delicious. There’s no mocktail menu, but they whip up something according to what flavours you like =)

Once your table is ready, a waiter takes you over to the restaurant and shows you to your table. The table is laid out with stones and pieces of bark of various shapes and sizes – which makes you think what the? But each and every one of these pieces is used throughout the meal progression which is something you don’t see in many restaurants.

The restaurant is located in a half circle manner, with the kitchen in the centre so most tables can see the view of Melbourne on one side and the kitchen on the other side, which has mirrors to reflect the plating up of the chefs. This was like the older venue of Vue De Monde and its nice that they have kept this.

My friends and I decided to go the whole hog and do the 10 course menu and we can safely say were absolutely stuffed at the end of it. Our dinner went from 8:15 till 1:30am! You can view the pictures of the different courses we had and the menu is listed below. I wont go through each and every dish but will touch on some of the stand out dishes for me. The meat/chicken dishes for me was substituted with veggie or seafood options.

The Spanner Crab and the Roasted Marron dish was crazy delicious! The Crab and the flavours they were mixed with made the dish fresh and inviting. The Marron was perfectly cooked and just melted in your mouth and the Tarragon Butter was a great addition.
Another stand out dish is the Field Mushroom with the Cona Infusion – this is done via a coffee expresso type of machine and the chef actually brings out to show you have the infusion is made and then pours it onto your dishes. Its fantastic! And the taste matched.
The Cucumber Sorbet and the Crushed Herbs is another standout dis. The chef comes out with dry ice and pours it on the herbs which instantly freezes and you then crush yourself. Allowing you to be part of the process adds to the fun of eating I think. The Cucumber Sorbet that they add on top is refreshing and the mix together cleanses your palate in order to prepare you for the next course. YUM!

The Cheeses of which we got to choose from the cheese cart that is wheeled around to our table – I wasn’t a big fan of. We asked to try one from the Medium strength tasting cheeses, but the selection we got weren’t the best tasting cheeses.

The Deserts weren’t that great in my opinion – the Pear desert flavours I didn’t enjoy and the Chocolate souffle, although perfectly made, wasn’t my cup of tea. What was great was the Passionfruit and Licorice concoction together with the Coconut and White Chocolate Balls – the sound of the combination put me off initially but the mix works well!

Overall, it was a great experience and the food was excellent with the exception of certain things. After 5 hours there we had to literally roll out of there – our bellies were full – and were given a nice Breakkie care package – consisting of Brioche, Jam, Honey, Biccies and Tea – ALL HOMEMADE! A perfect end to the night!